THE ‘ARGONAUTS’ 7

wicket at the main entrance stood the post-
office. Only a fringe of settlement went be-
yond the company’s farm. The fort was
sound asleep, secure in an eternal certainty
that the domain which it guarded would never
be overrun by American settlers as California
and Oregon had been. The little Admiralty
cruisers which lay at Esquimalt were guarantee
that New Caledonia should never be stam-
peded into a republic by an inrush of aliens.
Then, as now, it was Victoria’s boast that it
was more English than England.

So passed Christmas of ’57 with plum-pud-
ding and a roasted ox and toasts to the crown
and the company, though we cannot be quite
sure that the company was not put before the
crown in the souls of the fur-traders.

Then, in March 1858, just when Victoria
felt most secure as the capital of a perpetual
fur realm, something happened. A few Yankee
prospectors had gone down on the Hudson’s
Bay steamer Otter to San Francisco in February
with gold dust and nuggets from New Cale-
donia to exchange for money at the mint. The
Hudson’s Bay men had thought nothing of
this. Other treasure-seekers had come to New
Caledonia before and had gone back to san
Francisco disappointed. But, in March, these

1 rete SITTIN AR RAEN A I A